American Increasing Flight Block Time, Padding Schedules: Smart Move?

Would love to see how this impacts CLT given the number of flights they sell there with super tight connections

until they fix the minimum connection time in phoenix, they will have more to do.

Hopefully this fixes the totally absurd 30 minute connections AA allows at PHX and CLT.

I agree, definitely a good thing. Reliability over speed any day.

Came here to say this.

I don't know any other airline that has as many 30 minute or 35 minute connections as AA.

It's absurd, just as you said.

Hopefully this spells the end of that!

Dfw mct is not 50. Its 40 unless youre going into or out of the E satellite gates. Phx mct is actually only 25

PHX is one of the few places I am comfortable scheduling a short connection. I agree 25” is pushing it but I’ve made 30-35” connections there.

Increasing block time could mean 5 minutes?

If a 737 flies 4 flights a day, which is reasonable, that means 20 minutes to buffer times. That really means nothing.

What they need to do is increase minimum connection time by 10 minutes across all stations.

Can you write about the lack of AA flights to Europe until March?
Only JFK-MAD and JFK-LHR.
JFK-CDG changed to MIA-CDG

Back in the day before the internet with airline booking sites, the CRS systems would compile a list of all airlines' flights between a city pair. If departure time was identical, the shorter flight would be first. Now, with many of us going directly to an airline's web site, there usually is no display of any other airline's flights, so length of flight doesn't.

(posted that before I was finished)

...really matter. A seven-hour flight JFK-SFO on AA vs a six-hour JFK-SFO flight on DL, both leaving at 800am, the AA flight is not at much of a competitive disadvantage due to longer flight time these days because while looking at the AA flight, the DL flight is not seen. In the old days, the shorter DL flight time had a big advantage.

Back then being first on a display of available flights greatly increased the chance that flight would be booked. These days that's not an issue with just a single airline's flights in a list of choices.

tl;dr – Longer (padded) flight times really don't matter as much today as they did in the past.

So, this "unprecedented investment" is because corporate did the math and realized they were screwing over too many missed connections. The way American describes this change illustrates the big problems at the company. Instead of saying " we are changing our approach to connections to ensure more customers are able to get to their destinations on their booked itineraries and no longer miss connections and lose their baggage." American is claiming they are making an "unprecedented investment" in providing basic customer service fixing a problem that they created by trying to operate a schedule that breaks down when any stess is put on the system.

If you pad block, but then run a truly on-time flight, that plane will land and not have a gate available (at any congested airport). That’s not a better passenger experience.

Ultimately padding block time is the same thing as buying on-time performance. You don’t solve any of the root causes of your operational troubles, you’re just spending a lot of money to make the the numbers look better on paper. The only real benefit is reducing Misconnects, but you can accomplish the same thing by increasing MCT (minimum connect time) rather than using padding block.

Last comment: this actually hurts revenue too. Aggregators like Google Flights will sort “best flights” in part by block time, if price is the same.

Agree; stop offering me a 35 or 40 minute connection at a large hub. Recipe for an unnecessary misconnect. I get it though that in my retired status and only six +\- trips per year, I have a higher tolerance for a long connection than a weekly business traveler has.

Man some of AA’s connections are ridiculous. It’s like 40 mins or 4 hours. More than a few times it’s pushed me to competitors as I just want a comfy 90 mins that lets me saunter to the next gate and maybe grab a wine in the lounge.

Somehow not having a gate available only happens to me on American when we come in early. Delta pads schedules and somehow has gates available most of the time when they come in early (not always).

I'm based in LAX so happens a lot at LAX (congested) but even when landing in BOS, ATL, etc. Delta seems to have gates American has never had a gate ready when early.

Even landing in IND American has a gate but somehow no crew to bring the plane in when they are early

Sort of related, did AA recently change the amount of time for boarding? My domestic flights with them lately for 737 or A320 sized planes begin boarding 40 minutes before departure and small regional jets are boarding 30 minutes prior.

I would do the opposite of what AA is planning. Instead of padding block time I would increase aircraft turn times. There could be some revenue loss but labor costs would not increase and might even decrease. More ground time would also result in fewer maintenance delays and allow more time for aircraft cleaning and catering. I would also stop assigning gates so far in advance at DFW. I would assign a flight to a terminal but not assign a specific gate until 60-70 minutes before departure.

I generally try to avoid American, but they offer flights from Palm Springs to Florida that arrive late afternoon - rather than United's typical 11:00 PM-ish arrivals. I departed Ft Myers for Palm Springs Saturday evening, 27 December via Phoenix and, apparently due to weather conditions in the northeast, my flight was late by about an hour, resulting in my missing the last flight of the day out of Phoenix. I was told that, because the delay was due to weather, AA would not cover a hotel.

When I asked the agent if she might be able to tell me the name of a nearby hotel, she rattled off several names. I then asked if she wouldn't mind ordering me a wheelchair as at 75 yrs old I have a mobility issue. At that point, she whispered in the ear of a man behind the counter, told me to follow him, whereupon he gave me vouchers for a hotel and Uber transport. I thanked him profusely and he told me he is the manager - customer service manager, it would seem. When, after 3 tries over about an hour did not result in a wheelchair arriving, he wheeled me to the Uber pickup spot himself. I am so grateful and impressed, this is the only place I can think of to let people know.

I feel like 13 flight banks is the equivalent of saying zero flight banks. Haha